Reverse Monte Carlo investigations concerning recent isotopic substitution neutron diffraction data on liquid water

Abstract

Although liquid water has been studied for many decades by (X-ray and neutron) diffraction measurements, new experimental results keep appearing, virtually every year. The reason for this is that neither X-ray, nor neutron diffraction data are trivial to correct and interpret for this essential substance. Since X-rays are somewhat insensitive to hydrogen, neutron diffraction with (most frequently, H/D) isotopic substitution is vital for investigating the most important feature in water: hydrogen bonding. Here, the two very recent sets of neutron diffraction data are considered, both exploiting the contrast between light and heavy hydrogen, ${}^1$H and ${}^2$H, in different ways. Reverse Monte Carlo structural modeling is applied for constructing large structural models that are as consistent as possible with all experimental information, both in real and reciprocal space. The method has also proven to be useful for revealing where possible small inconsistencies appear during primary data processing: for one neutron data set, it is the molecular geometry that may not be maintained within reasonable limits, whereas for the other set, it is one of the (composite) radial distribution functions that cannot be modeled at the same (high) level as the other three functions. Nevertheless, details of the local structure around the hydrogen bonds appear very much the same for both data sets: the most probable hydrogen bond angle is straight, and the nearest oxygen neighbours of a central oxygen atom occupy approximately tetrahedral positions.

7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Molecular Liquids

References in corpus (3)

• Structure determination of liquid carbon tetrabromide via a combination of x-ray and neutron diffraction data and reverse Monte Carlo modeling
• Comparison of the atomic level structure of the plastic crystalline and the liquid phases of CBr2Cl2: neutron diffraction and Reverse Monte Carlo modeling
• An independent, general method for checking consistency between diffraction data and partial radial distribution functions derived from them: the example of liquid water

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The structure of aqueous lithium chloride solutions at high concentrations as revealed by a comparison of classical interatomic potential models
• A comparison of classical interatomic potentials applied to highly concentrated aqueous lithium chloride solutions
• Reverse Monte Carlo modeling of liquid water with the explicit use of the SPC/E interatomic potential
• Comparison of water models for structure prediction